PROVINCIAL HEADZ: BRITISH HIP HOP AND CRITICAL REGIONALISM

Abstract

Provincial Headz: British Hip Hop and Critical Regionalism draws upon spatial practice, material culture, human geography, musicology and cultural theory in order to present an interdisciplinary counter-narrative to that of Hip Hop as a strictly urban phenomenon; providing insight into the relocation of Hip Hop culture from its inception in New York ghettos to its practices in provincial and rural Britain. Hip Hop culture truly arrived in Britain in 1983, a decade after its origin in New York City, and although many important events, artists and recordings that evidence Hip Hop’s existence in 1980s Britain are well documented, these are almost exclusively urban. Additionally, the narratives embedded in these representations remain too convenient and unchallenged. This book reveals parallel and dialectical experiences of British Hip Hop pioneers and practitioners dwelling outside the metropolis, discussed under the recurring themes of relocation, territory, consumption, production and identity. These narratives are framed within a rich contextual discourse drawing upon the theories of Bhabha, Lefebvre, Bourdieu, Ricœur, Foucault, and DeLanda among others. Projecting the focus of Hip Hop theory forward from urbanism to rurality, the book uncovers and challenges the conventions of a Hip Hop state of mind and how we understand it.